Venezuela slams EU immigration laws, threatens to suspend oil supply

Xinhua Caracas, June 19 (Xinhua) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has strongly criticised the new immigration laws of the European Union (EU) and threatened to suspend oil supplies to European countries if the laws come into force. “Our petroleum should not go to those European countries” that apply the new laws, Chavez said Thursday while meeting visiting Paraguayan president-elect Fernando Lugo, who also voiced his opposition to the laws.

Lugo said the laws were against human rights.

On Wednesday, the EU adopted tough new rules on illegal immigrants that calls for detention for up to 18 months before deportation to their native countries. It also calls for extending the length of entry ban after the deportation of any illegal migrant.

In a joint press conference with Lugo, Chavez called the “return directive” or the new immigration law, which was approved by the European Parliament in Strasbourg in a 367-206 vote Wednesday, “outrageous”.

The leftist leader said such legislation was unacceptable and invited Latin American and African nations to form a common front in rejection of the anti-immigration law.

He said after the wars in Europe, many European immigrants almost naked and without money arrived in the Americas and hoped for a new life. “None of them were rejected,” Chavez added. Xinhua